Fate of Crossville Attendance Center could be decided in February

Friday

Jan 25, 2013 at 8:00 AM

The fate of Crossville Attendance Center could be decided as early as the February meeting of the Unit 5 School Board. The board met for their regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 22. They are facing big challenges in the months ahead.

Tammy Knox

The fate of Crossville Attendance Center could be decided as early as the February meeting of the Unit 5 School Board. The board met for their regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 22. They are facing big challenges in the months ahead.

As reported earlier, the State of Illinois continues to cut funding to the school district, making it necessary for the school board to cut spending. Some cuts were made for Fiscal Year 2013, but more cuts are essential.

"We did receive general state aid funds, Title I and Title II funds along with local revenues from things such as ballgames this month," said Lee. "However, the state still owes us more than $550,000 and we have already received 54% of other revenues owed to us this year. Our expenditures are at 44%, and that's a good thing. We will continue to work to keep those down, but we will see our balances continue to dwindle down. Our line of credit runs out Feb. 28, so the decline will be more prevalent then."

Lee noted that the current situation of the school district is not the result of anyone's actions on the board or in the system. It is attributed to the state cuts in funding. He noted the general state aid dropped from 100% to 95 % in FY12 and from 95 to 89% in FY13. The funding is expected to drop to 85 and possibly 80% in FY14, which will place some real challenges on the district to make ends meet. As a result, Lee said the board is trying to find the best way to address these funding issues and will make $2 million in cuts over the next three years in FY14, FY15 and FY16.

One area that has been discussed is the closing of the school in Crossville and how that would play a role in this plan. Lee said it's not something the board necessarily wants to do but under the conditions they are facing, it's something they are looking strongly at.

"The Cost Containment committee is looking at a wide range of options," said Board Member James Cutchin. "We want to try to make decisions that will be the least disruptive to the classrooms and the staff."

Board President Keith Hoskins also explained the district has $2 million in non-reoccurring costs and these cuts will put the district back on track. They are looking for cuts over three school years and hope to process these in a systematic way that maintains education for kids and keeps the education level at the highest it can be.

It was also noted that closing a school is a big start but it won't count for all the revenue that needs to be replaced and there are other items that need to be looked at as well.

"Every meeting I go to, I hear the same thing happening in almost every school district," said Lee. "Everyone is affected somehow by the general state aid cuts. They are reducing staff, closing buildings and cutting programs. We are going to try to phase in the changes and cuts, but still things and people are going to be affected. The situation we are being put into is tough and no one at this table created this, but we are all faced with it. I believe we need to make a decision on closing a school at the February board meeting so it will give us enough time to prepare if we are going to do that. I don't think we can put it off any longer."

Before breaking into closed session, Lee provided more updates. He said the district enrollment figures show there are currently 1,373 students district wide, which is up by 24 students. He also noted that in the past two weeks, there has been a higher absentee rate due to flu season and the rate ran between 16 and 18% absent one week. He said a normal January would see a rate of around 8%. Lee did note that each building is taking precautions against sickness and providing students with things to do to prevent the spread of germs.

Lee also pointed out the district has not used any emergency days. The last day of school is scheduled for Friday, May 31 but the calendar includes five built in emergency days, which would be taken off at the end of the year if they are not used.

Lee addressed school safety issues and noted the administrative team met with Sheriff Doug Maier, Deputy Craig Poole and Officer Jason Carter from the Carmi Police Department. They reviewed the current district emergency and crisis response plans and discussed ways to make the schools safer. Currently, all classroom doors throughout the district are locked.

It was also mentioned that a team of staff members will be attending crisis team training Thurs. Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 1 in Norris City. The training is sponsored by the Regional Office of Education 20 and will be conducted by the Crisis Management Institute located in Salem, Ore.

Also, local law enforcement will participate in an "Active Shooter Training" conducted by the Illinois State Police scheduled tentatively for Saturday, Feb. 9 and Sunday, Feb. 10 at the middle school. The district is also looking into the costs to install alarms and cameras at the main entrances to the buildings.

"The safety of our students is of utmost importance," said Lee. "We will continue to look for ways to make improvements and try to monitor doors better for people coming in and out of our buildings."

Lee also reported the Carmi-White County Invitational Tournament was very successful and Lee thanked all those who played a role in making it a success. He also pointed out the CWCMS eighth grade Lady Bullpup team that advanced to the Class L State Basketball Tournament and congratulated them and Coach Roger Hortin on their success.

Lee called on Dr. Amy Dixon to provide the board with an update on the Jan. 18 half-day in-service training and the Illinois 5 Essentials Survey.

Before Dr. Dixon began, she passed out two flyers for free parent presentations by Cheri Love. Love has worked with schools that have experienced trauma for the past 30 years. She specializes in prevention, mitigation, response and follow-up with schools in the aftermath of deaths, natural disasters, traumatic events and other issues that could affect students.

The first session will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30 at Fairfield High School regarding, "Safe Schools and Homes for Our Kids." Love will also provide another free session at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 at Eldorado High School. The programs are hosted by ROE No. 20, Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District and Fairfield and Eldorado School Districts.

"School safety is always on our minds," said Dr. Dixon. "Before the school shooting in December in Connecticut, we had already made plans to form a crisis team. We encourage all parents to take advantage of these sessions."

Turning the attention back to Unit 5 business, Dr. Dixon said the half-day in-service training Friday, Jan. 18 focused on Common Core State Standards. The session continued the process of educating teachers on the change to Common Core, primarily focusing on language arts curriculums. Dr. Dixon explained that kindergarten students will now receive a standards-based report card, which will continue through their education to Grade 12.

Dr. Dixon also talked about the Illinois 5 Essentials Survey in which Illinois is leading the nation in providing a unique opportunity for teachers, students and parents to have a voice in improving their schools. Beginning Feb. 1, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) will ask administrators in nearly 4,000 schools to give teachers, students and parents a 15-minute research based survey to help identify strengths and weaknesses in five essential areas: instruction, environment, leaders, teachers and families. Schools strong in three or more of the five categories are 10 times more likely to make substantial gains in math and reading. The survey is required under state legislation passed last year. It will help schools target areas of improvement and identify positive developments that test scores alone can't capture.

Dr. Dixon also informed the board of a special Community Advisory Meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the University of Illinois Extension Office. The meeting was set to inform the community of various changes affecting the public education system with special emphasis placed on the implementation of the new Common Core curriculum. A full report on the meeting will be available in the Friday, Jan. 25 edition of The Times.

The board adjourned into closed session beginning at 7:36 p.m.

Tammy Knox can be reached at 382-4176. Follow her on Twitter @tammycarmitimes.

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